The Bacchae
ca. 406 BCE
Background
Prologue
contextualizing
thematizing
[opposite of deus ex machina
non-elitist cult worship]
Significant names (nomen-omen)
Pentheus
[Gk. penthos (path-) = grief]
Maenads (Bacchae)
[Gk. mainomai = to rage]
Structuralist approach-binary opposites
Pentheus
Dionysus
male
female
human
divine
rational
irrational
city (internal space) nature (external space)
order
chaos
human law
divine law
secular humanism
spiritualism (and traditional religion)
sophists
Tiresias and Cadmus
demythologization
Greek
Barbarian
hunter
hunted
modern world
Golden Age
Reversals—post-structuralism or self-deconstructing text
male and female
human and divine
rational and irrational
city (internal space) and nature (external space)
order and chaos
hunters and hunted
Messianic figure(s): Dionysus-Pentheus and Jesus Christ
The Bacchae
the Old and New Testaments
birth of god from union of God and
mortal woman
Luke 1.26
substitute sacrificial victims
Luke 23.24; Matthew 26.2
wine consumed = blood of
divine being
Matthew 26.26
humility vs. human knowledge
Genesis 2.15
death
release from death
insanity and death from revelation
peace, serenity and salvation
through revelation
Luke 24.13-32
Dionysus and man’s dark side: Freud’s “id”
Roman state bans Dionysian worship—186 BCE
Greeks accept/acknowledge Dionysus
Great Dionysia
Carnival/Mardi-Gras
West African origins
control by Catholic church
F. Nietzsche—The Birth of Tragedy
T. Mann—Death in Venice
John 14